Laury Traksel-Janssen

Before I became an entrepreneur, I spent more than 18 years in consulting and sales positions in my career. To the outside world I was doing very well: Company car, good salary, nice job, but I was missing “something”. The tipping point for me came when I went on a trip to Antarctica, Falkland and South Georgia in December 2017. In a fairy-tale setting at a place called Gold Harbor I felt an enormous amount of energy flowing through my body. This was the moment that I felt: If I don't do what my heart tells me, I will regret this for the rest of my life.

What do I really want in my life and what makes me really happy? Μany books and different coaches behind, I felt a strong urge to start my own business. The ‘recurring theme’ in my career that I enjoyed the most was the human angle: Knowing what moves people, helping people to develop, listening carefully to their needs and advising and applying structure. In addition, I like clear, direct communication and chasing something together!

As business coach, I operate on my own without any direct colleagues. The main goal of my business is to support and help people in growing their business! Value proposition, selling products and services, attracting customers, revenue models and concrete action plan are some examples of activities I carry out with my clients.

My coaching also includes helping them to find a good work-life balance with peace of mind, sufficient personal time and time for friends and family. I am convinced that business and personal growth are an integrated activity resulting in a mutual growth.

Personally, I really want to make people feel happy, enabling them to make the transformation from who they are now towards another, more happier person in their personal life and within their business. I often witness two main challenges with clients. First one is a balancing between more revenue on one side and less work on the other, without compromising their net income. Second one is to ‘sell’ the outcome or result instead of billable hours.

I am mainly focusing on self-employed entrepreneurs or SME’s with a small company or venture. Often, these persons are already experienced managers or directors, but they need to make a next step in their business. Many of them have a poor work-life balance. They do not have any benchmark to reflect on their individual challenges and often get lost in routine tasks and day-to-day operations.

A long-term plan is often considered as low priority, but this is one of my key activities to support entrepreneurs and SME’s. But I look at this from a very practical approach, integrating personal backgrounds, e.g. family systematics, and neuro linguistic programming (NLP) with dedicated business development activities.

Most entrepreneurs are very focused with a lot of energy and dedication, often spending 60 or 80 hours a week and during weekends in their business. Through NLP, we mutually explore specific patterns in their way-of-working, enabling to pin-point specific barriers. With these bottlenecks identified, we can together work on a comprehensive business plan.

We have intensive sessions every fortnight, mixed with sufficient time for ‘homework’ and supported with an easy-to-use online portal. In the follow-up sessions, we will discuss the insights and discover together how we can improve specific activities or tasks, after which actual implementation can be initiated. Although there is a general roadmap using a 12-step plan, we make dedicated choices that are appropriate for the client’s situation and his or her specific needs.

My only requirement is their commitment and their willingness to take difficult decisions. With each little step forward, these persons have always demonstrated that they have been able to improve and grow their business. And also to continue their journey on a personal development level.

Build a business takes time! It is based upon patience, starting with courage and small investments. My own first ‘big spendings’ were a smartphone and a professional laptop. Due to the COVID pandemic, most people were used to working from home and that is also what I did in my first year.

Working remotely, from home and also abroad, was easier than I expected, but the first steps are still tough and challenging. Another important ‘condition’ is to ensure that you have a stable financial situation and some ‘skin-on-the-bone’. It will take at least 6 – 12 months prior to start earning any significant revenues.

You need to be dedicated and focused: Having a second (part-time) job next to your entrepreneurship is normally not a mixture for success. You do not only need all the time to focus on your business and helping clients, but you also need time to be trained or educated by other professionals.

Now ’It’s my fourth year as a business coach and I have my own office. But actually, I can work from everywhere. For example, during the Corona quarantine period, I was in Finland and did some Zoom calls from there. Although I prefer to meet people in person, this proofed to be a good alternative.

During 2019 I have actively worked on offering an online platform to support my online clients. The software that I used to create my online program is called Podia. I also work with Google Suite and Google Drive, enabling SharePoint facilities and direct feedback. However, don’t start by using too many digital tools. Very often, a simple Excel or PowerPoint can take you a long way!

With my brand established, I’ve started with development of a website and initial exposure via the social media platforms Facebook and LinkedIn. Beside online visibility, I also embraced regional network events, live meetings and a lot of connections via phone or chats.

Face-to-face contact remains to be my favorite communication channel though: It is the easiest way for me to connect with potential clients, with in-depth discussions highlighting the value I could bring them with Grow4Flow.

I also spent quite a bit of time on creating content, such as a free e-book, which I use for sales funnel management and active campaigns. After a few years, I have started digital advertising, building on a clear proof-of-concept with a variety of different, good references of past and current clients.

Delegation is another angle to focus and create success. I am delegating my accounting, LinkedIn advertising and design of materials and tools. Still, I do not plan to hire personnel now. I remain focused on my own business without directly managing a team of people. But I’m expanding my services with workshops and dinner events for specific groups, enabling me to scale my services.

Currently I am running my business full-time, which make it also challenging to reserve some dedicated time to develop my own business. On Friday I have blocked my agenda and do admin work or develop new activities for mid-to-long term growth. Starting from scratch, the last four years have been a wonderful, life-changing journey, with downfalls and great successes.

And over these years, I have been able to build a sustainable business, every year increasing my revenues, further improving my margins and also being able to create a better work-life balance. Just as I am doing for my clients. As they say, ‘leading by example’.